Gritty Science
by Lonely in the basement
Summary: Science isn't pretty. The trials one goes through to understand the universe are grueling, they're time consuming, and sometimes they can break your soul. Science is knowledge, science is understanding. And sometimes the price for this is your mind. Rated for graphic depictions of violence and disturbing imagery.
1. Dick

Science was a practice of trial and error. You had a question, you tested for that question, and you eventually got the answer you seek. If you didn't get the answer, you tried again.

But sometimes science was gritty. You had to get down on your knees; you had to get your hands dirty. Get elbow deep in the filthy side of existence to really understand it, pull it out and only when it was a throbbing, singular entity in your hand could you really understand how it worked. That was science.

If nothing else, Wally was a scientist.

**Dick**

Wally knew the hardest one to study would be Dick. The Dark Knight's partner was always on guard, always prepared for the next attack. It took the ginger weeks of patiently waiting, his eyes watching every move his friend made.

It was a cool day when Wally finally got his chance. They were walking back to Dick's house, and took an alley because it was just that much quicker. Dick's shoulders relaxed for just a moment, and Wally's hand wrapped around Dick's neck as the other covered his mouth with a rag. A few seconds in and Dick was out like a light.

Wally laid Dick on the ground and set up a light to illuminate his workspace. He pulled out his sanitized equipment and got to work cutting through clothes with a surgeon's precision. He marked where he wanted to start, and when he was satisfied with the preparation he made his first mark.

This was his first patient, so his hand shook a little, but it was important to him that his friend was his first so he ignored the jagged lines he left. The blood spilled onto Dick's porcelain white skin and rolled onto the ground, but the answers he got were worth it. He analyzed the muscles and ligaments, noting their more elastic texture compared to what he'd seen that time he went to Barry's work. Slowly the spine was pulled from the body for Wally to analyze it, then he sliced open the skull to study the normal brain. Then, with a child like glee, he slipped his hand into the rib cage and pulled out the strong heart his friend had. The size and texture were normal, and it was a good weight. When he cut it open it had no signs of wear and tear like someone older might have.

Overall Wally considered Dick his control. The base from which he would judge the rest. His detailed notes were filed in his backpack, ready to be put away before anyone noticed. Quickly, he ran home to put them away. Then he came back to the scene, and covered his tracks.

The police station soon had a distraught ginger on their hands, frantic with a wild story of a killer who took his best friend and left him hurt and bruised. They would find a body several weeks later rotting in a trash heap in the city dump. The team mourned, and he'd be comforted by his family and friends. When the day was over he'd take delight in going over his notes before going to bed.


	2. Kaldur

The study of Marine biology was always interesting to Wally. The entire system was vast and filled with variety. He could spend hours memorizing the different species and how their muscular structures worked, but it still wouldn't be enough. After all, it's nice to know how a fish works. But an Atlantian? Learning about them would be like Christmas.

He wanted to know more. What separated the Atlantian muscular structure from a human? What allowed them to function in both completely different environments without adverse side effects? And sure, there was a bunch of different Atlantian subtypes, but there was only one that he could get his hands on at the moment.

**Kaldur**

The computer regulated the pools at the cave. The computer was very good at keeping prime conditions for its waters, it filtered out anything it deemed potentially hazardous. So the first thing Wally did was wait until the cave was undergoing its monthly systems check. All non-vital systems were shut down and that included the water monitoring system. Kaldur always took a midnight swim, and with a little persuading that was the time Wally got Robin to reschedule the check.

The calculations weren't hard to figure out, and ten minutes before the systems went down Wally was ready with the chemicals all measure and prepped into little perforated bags. The clock read midnight and Wally pushed the bags into the water, they were plastic and hard to see in the water. Wally rushed out of the room just before Kaldur entered and slipped into the water. The Atlantian made a face at the new feel of the water but started swimming anyway.

After about a half an hour, the deed was done. The chemicals took their effect on Kaldur's Atlantian physiology and effectively killed him, slowly but surely. Wally used the pool equipment to fish him out and lay him right next to the pool area. He prepped his medical equipment and set to work.

Like his first dissection he started off with the Y-incision, exposing the entire chest cavity. It was much like a Homo sapiens chest cavity except for different looking lungs. Wally cut himself a sample of Kaldur's lungs and moved down to his limbs, slicing open his hands and taking samples from the webbing. After a bit of debating with himself he decided to take samples of the various muscle groups in Kaldur's body, just to see if they were any different from a normal human's muscles.

Once he was finished he set up the crime scene, planting fake footprints from a pair of shoes he bought at the thrift store and DNA from several different criminals. When he was done, and everyone alerted to the killing, not even Batman had a clue as to what was going on.

The results from his samples showed that Kaldur's body was built to suck oxygen from the water, and switch to pulling it from the air at the drop of the hat. His muscles naturally generated electricity for his attacks and were more durable then humans. His fins were an interesting mix of human skin and fish skin. Because of the structure of his body, Kal's body easily lost moisture and sweated it out.

Despite the fact that he killed both Robin and Kaldur Batman couldn't find a connection between the two incidents. Leaving Wally to read his journal, now with two entries, in peace.


	3. M'gann

Martian biology differed drastically from human biology. They didn't really have major organs, everything important happened on a molecular level. That would mean analyzing it on a microscopic and chemical level. And their bodies required careful handling, the ability to change shape so drastically implied an unstableness of sorts.

What exactly allowed the Martians to change shape? What was the source of their mind powers? These were questions that needed answering, and no one would be able to stop Wally from figuring them out. It may get complicated, and he may get caught. But just because something was controversial didn't mean that they shouldn't research it.

**M'gann**

It was almost sad how easily it was to take out M'gann. All he did was hang out in her school, skipping his for that day, and waited in the girls bathroom she always visited during third period. He knocked her out using a good old fashion bat and locked the door to the bathroom. Once done he carefully took preliminary samples from her flesh then pour a light amount of gasoline on her and lit a fire, taking his time and opening the vents in the room to allow heat to escape and gas to circulate. After a while the mini fires caused M'gann to shift back to her original form and die, allowing Wally to go to work.

Slipping out his equipment Wally immediately took samples from her skin before slicing through her outer layers. He had no clue how Martian bodies functioned, nor where anything was at, so he went very slowly. Any fluids that came from the body were collected in a large quantity to be analyzed later.

Inside were various lumps and veins, all of which were sampled and preserved in various liquids. Batman kept a few files on Martian Manhunter's biology public, but Wally lacked the necessary clearance to access anything about hurting him. Not to mention they all had been locked away because of the recent killings of the team. Honestly, at this point in time killing M'gann was necessary since Batman was being so stingy with his findings.

The dissection took longer then expected, long enough that the teacher began to worry about her and send someone to look for her. They banged on the door, but found it unlocked. Unable to finish disposing of M'gann's body he decided to leave it there and let people find out about her being a martian. So he slipped through one of the windows that was open at the very top for air flow and escape before the student could realize that the bathroom wasn't being cleaned.

Results required waiting longer then the ones for Kaldur, mostly because he couldn't get to the cave for a few weeks after M'gann's killing. That was the closest lab that could process his stuff, but it was all worth it when he was able to stand in the white room with all of the beautiful chemicals and equipment.

Findings showed that the Martian biology was very unstable on the molecular level outside of their default bodies. And unlike regular humans, their bodies didn't naturally revert to its default state or the state of least work, which was why M'gann could stay like that without focusing on it.

The results were impressive. And as the team mourned Wally crossed off another name on his list.


	4. Conner

Kryptonian biology. That was an interesting subject if Wally ever heard of it. Even less was known about them then the martians. Not that getting to know about them was important, Superman was the last one and it's doubtful he could reproduce with the human population. Even if he could it'd be unlikely Wally could get close enough to him to dissect him.

But the one who Wally could get close enough to. Conner was transferred to Wally's school after M'gann's death, The League figured that having two members, plus Wally's Uncle and Jay Garrick, around would be enough of a deterrent to keep the two safe.

**Conner**

Getting to Conner was almost as easy as getting to M'gann was. Scratch that, it was easier. Unlike with M'gann all Wally had to do was carry around a few shards of Kryptonite in his pocket while he ate lunch with Conner. When Conner started complaining about feeling sick Wally offered to help him to the nurse's office.

Half way there Conner passed out, allowing Wally to drag him to the bathroom similar to the way he killed M'gann. Only this time he had an extra ten minutes to finish his experiment. Like last time he pulled out his dissection equipment and got to work.

Conner's skin was harder to slice through, causing Wally's scalpel to get caught in some spaces. Wally ended up tugging at some particular places causing blood to spurt out and get all over the floor. When Wally was finished he was almost disappointed to see that Conner's body was nearly identical to a normal humans body. But he did take some samples of Conner's muscles for his lab later.

He left the body in a locked bathroom stall and leave easily after cleaning off the blood that got on his shoes, his school didn't have video cameras so he knew that he wouldn't get caught. He cut a large gash in his leg with one of his sanitized scalpels and used that to get out of a tardy slip from his teacher.

The body was found by a janitor and his school shut down. He couldn't go anywhere near the cave laboratory for a few weeks, but after a while he got his results back that showed that Conner's muscles cells were much more compact then human cells and, of course, much more powerful then a humans. It really wasn't anything he wasn't expecting.

Whatever, it was a good thing to have on file anyway.


	5. Raquel

Energy, its every form affected the human body. Kinetic energy and Potential energy were the very basics. The body has so much potential energy stored, ready to cause a body to run, jump, sit, and walk. Light energy caused the chemicals of the body to make Vitamin D, and forced your skin to stock up on melanin and darken. Your stomach broke down food, which had stored energy, and took it for itself. Energy was what made the universe work.

And energy was what made Rocket's powers work. It harvested kinetic energy, allowed her to fly, and enhanced her attacks. Where exactly did that energy come from though? Did it come from Rocket? Did it come from the environment? How did using it affect her body? It was time to find out.

**Rocket**

Wally's school was shut down, forcing him to go to the new one downtown. The teachers were lackluster and the programs sucked, but that was perfect. Most didn't care if he was in class or not, they all just marked him present if they thought they saw him. So he attended first period, then only part of second period and left. The same teacher in a different class taught third period so she would definitely mark him present since she already saw him. That left him nearly two hours to get to Dakota and get to work.

In order to defuse suspicion he ran there, finding it much easier then that one mission during the snowstorm. Once within the city limits he slowed down enough to look around and find Rocket's school, finding it only marginally better then his own newer school. He knew her class schedule after casually inquiring about it about it two weeks ago. The bell rang for passing period and he quickly found her.

Unlike with the others, she got a good look at him before he could cover her mouth with the chloroform soaked rag and subsequently struggled a bit before finally passing out. Once out he dragged her into the abandoned bathroom, which he labeled with an out of order sign, and locked the door.

If he wanted to he could take all day with the dissection, recording detailed notes from studying her muscles and body after a lengthy analysis. So that's exactly what he did spending that entire period, plus part of lunch, slowly chipping away at her physiology. There was no invulnerability, no time limit, nothing to slow him down or rush him. This was a nice dissection. And, like with the others, he left her in the stall for the janitors to find.

After analyzing it in his Uncle's home lab, which he had begged access to after finding a sick frog that he wanted to dissect as well, and found absolutely nothing. It appears that that belt did nothing to her body. Which made this dissection an official bust.


	6. Artemis

The muscles of the human body changed, expanded, and contorted as they were continuously put under stress. They changed around and warped based on the muscles they were attached to. To be able to complete his experiments he had to thoroughly understand muscles, how they were affected in their growth based on hormonal and other chemical factors.

Artemis was a female archer, a practitioner from childhood. Her upper body was sculpted to fit her preferred combat style. But her muscles were also honed under other chemical factors. Estrogen, the major female hormone, doesn't promote muscle growth like Testosterone does. What exact chemicals were in her body to promote such definition?

**Artemis**

After his fiasco with Raquel each and every member of The Team had been forced to the same town to go to the same school. They ended up choosing Metropolis because of its low crime rate, but the fact that Superman lived in the city helped. He has super hearing which most of the league felt would be a bonus.

The problem was the super hearing doesn't mean he has super paying attention skills, he can only do one thing at once. So, that's what Wally counted on. When the big blue boy scout was at work Wally scouted out the building. Eventually he figured out the peak hours of work for the man and planned his attack during that time.

Right before lunch was always the busiest time, so Wally chloroformed Artemis at exactly 11:13 while she was at her locker. At this new school Wally had a free period right before lunch for this very reason. This new school also had excess rooms, so that's where he dragged her to.

Inside he went to work, using his equipment to slice open her upper body and arms, taking fluid and muscle samples with a practiced hand. Unlike with Raquel, Wally was in and out quickly. Taking 10 minutes to slice her open, took simple notes and moderate amount of samples, and quickly left to go back to study hall.

Lab results showed that she did have a slightly above average amount of testosterone in her blood, plus multiple other chemicals necessary for life and muscle growth. So he did get what he expected from her testing, but he was only mildly happy about it. Sure it was interesting, but she was only practice for what was to come.


	7. Fake! Zatanna

Homo Magi. Just the name sent Wally's skeptic reflex into overdrive. It made no sense, there was nothing like that cataloged in the human genome project. There was no gene found that genealogists could describe as a marker as a magi, no proof of magic or the supernatural, nothing that defied the laws of science.

But, as a scientist, Wally was required to test this theory. Zatanna claimed that her powers were magic and her title as a Homo Magi was true, this made her the perfect subject to test. If her biology held up her claims then he had no choice but to acknowledge it, but if it didn't then magic wasn't real, at least for her, and her powers were caused by other factors.

**Zatanna**

The League began cracking down on security even more since Artemis' death. Their school was regularly checked up on by random league members and their teachers were instructed to call if anyone went missing. This made Wally's work harder because he didn't have an opening. They were grouped up and forced to hang out with each other during their free time. The league was not playing jokes.

His opportunity came when Zatanna asked the group if anyone wanted to help her study for her Latin 1 class. Since he was the only one who was in any Latin class, he was getting an A in Latin 4 thank you very much, it was agreed the two would study in the very big library at lunch. It was in the library, where Wally asked her to help him look for a book in the back section, with all of the dictionaries, where he striked.

Like with the other ladies he knocked her out with some chloroform and quickly cut her open with the basic y-incision. He collected blood and saliva samples and checked her chest cavity, but the entire process was quick and simple because anyone could walk back on them at any moment. When done he hid the samples in the book shelf and took the scalpel to his own chest, nicking the upper left in the beginning of the y-incision he used on Zatanna before breathing deeply in the chloroform rag and passing out.

The aftermath was horrendous. His parents called, his aunt and uncle nearly had heart attacks, and the League was getting desperate. He was questioned but he stuck to his one story, they were looking for a book and then his nose was covered with a rag and he passed out. He nearly panicked when they contemplated bringing in J'onn to see if he could get information, but it was decided that that was too extreme and his mind was too fast to accidentally miss something that was incredibly well hidden.

It took nearly three months to get time to sit down with his retrieved samples and run tests, before then he couldn't go anywhere because the League had set them up with separate schooling in the Mountain and no one was allowed outside. But the results came back showing that Zatanna had regular human DNA thus regular human chromosomes. This negative result was more fulfilling though, because the results could've gone either way. And thus he shelved his nearly completed notes.

A/N: I said that Zatanna doesn't have anything outside of the regular human genome because the Homo Magi gene is magic~

Science can't see it.

…. JK I just thought it would be easier.


	8. Zatanna

Homo Magi. Just the name sent Wally's skeptic reflex into overdrive. It made no sense, there was nothing like that cataloged in the human genome project. There was no gene found that genealogists could describe as a marker as a magi, no proof of magic or the supernatural, nothing that defied the laws of science.

But, as a scientist, Wally was required to test this theory. Zatanna claimed that her powers were magic and her title as a Homo Magi was true, this made her the perfect subject to test. If her biology held up her claims then he had no choice but to acknowledge it, but if it didn't then magic wasn't real, at least for her, and her powers were caused by other factors.

**Zatanna**

The League had finally cracked down fully now that all but two of the team members were gone. He and Zatanna were both moved to the same schedules, which meant he had to leave Biology and Latin 4, and instructed to stay as close as possible to each other. This would've made Wally's life easier if he wouldn't be the first suspect should Zatanna be killed but he be left unscathed.

So it took a lot of planning, but the moment came when he heard of a gang shoot out that was going to happen down town while he was in the boys bathroom. It took only a little persuading to convince Zatanna that they were heroes despite being under watch. At the dead of night they escaped from the League house they were allotted and left to the harbor.

Just minutes after they got there, the shooting began. Despite the danger they spent a good amount of it safe, and easily captured some of the armed gangsters. They were doing good, until Wally pushed her into some gunfire and riddled her full of bullets. The body wasn't what he wanted though, it was some fluid samples from her mouth, hair, and blood. He hid them near the harbor under some of the rocks near the water then went back up.

To cover his tracks he allowed himself to be shot as well, but only in the arm, before calling for back up from his Uncle and Superman. They came, he was in hysterics, the battle was long over, and his goals met. After being patched up and lectured the league decided to hold multiple hearings. The team was official over now that Wally was the only member, and they dismissed Zatanna's death as an accident due to the conditions.

It took months to actually get the time to run his samples and extract the DNA. Once he analyzed it he concluded that there was no "homo magi" subgroup or species, there was no difference between her genes and that of a normal human. All in all, this was an enlightening experience. And one that he was happy to find.

He shelved his notes, his collection almost complete.

A/N this is the real chapter that I'm going off of. The other one will stay up if you guys want.


	9. Roy

Wally was confident he could dissect his last subject, he had gathered enough experience from his past dissections and from hanging out with his uncle during his work. But it couldn't hurt from practice, and another control subject would be good.

Roy. Roy could be his last dissection. He already had a female archer under his belt, and he needed a little more practice with his chemical tests. It'd be perfect, he could test the difference in the amount of testosterone between the two and how much muscle they both had. They'd both been working at archery for about the same amount of time, but it wouldn't be a good test since Roy was older. But it would have to do, and it'd be fun either way.

**Roy**

It had been a year since Zatanna's death and the ending of the team. Wally had been allowed to take up hero work again seven months post mortem under his uncle's constant watch. Soon after he was allowed out with other League members, but sometimes whoever he was out with would be on edge. Everyone was worried that they were only biding their time until he was next.

Of course, killing Roy while he was out with him would again raise suspicion so Wally didn't even entertain the thought. The more he contemplated it, the more he realized that doing it while on the job was a stupid idea all together.

So he popped in on Roy's apartment one day after school. Roy was taking a nap on his couch when Wally happened upon him, making his job just that much more easier. Without even pausing, Wally took one of Ollie's arrows, that he swiped while out with the man, and shoved it through Roy's scull, ear through ear. With the death quick and over with Wally easily sliced through the arm and torso to connect tissue and blood samples. Just for fun he got some fluid from Roy's eye as well, he'd never done a diabetes test before after all.

Silently he slipped out from Roy's shoddy apartment and ran to the cave to get his testing under way. He refused to use the zetas because they'd track his movement, and it was a risk of not being able to use the labs again if they shut down the cave like they did before.

The results were done in a week, Wally taking his time when he found out that they weren't going to close off the cave. Ollie was put on trial for the murder of Roy, but besides the arrow no one could find anything else on him. The arrow was also very old and could've been taken from Ollie any time in the past seven months. He wasn't tried guilty, but he wasn't as trusted by the League or the public once they got wind. Ollie's reputation was shot.

And Wally found a higher amount of testosterone in Roy's blood, alone with almost twenty-two percent more muscle in his arms then Artemis. A typical result, but one that was good for practice.

But the liquid he took from Roy's eye didn't come back normal. It wasn't diabetic, but it wasn't a typical healthy person's eye fluid either. Whatever, he didn't really have the means to do any more tests. So he'll have to let that question lie.


	10. Barry

The experiment that gave Wally his powers was an especially complicated experiment. It took Wally days to set up and complete it, and even then he felt it didn't turn out right. First of all he got fried, neither his uncle nor Jay got as hurt as he did from their experiments. Secondly, he wasn't that fast. His uncle could lap him several times over.

Of course, all of that could be because of Wally's younger age. Maybe he could grow into his powers as he grew older and practiced. Though he wondered exactly how his speed would affect his body as he grew older, what he would have to expect or work to prevent in the future.

**Barry**

Wally was always close to his uncle even though they were not related. The two had hit it off when his Aunt Iris had introduced them and had quickly developed a close bond. When Wally got his powers his uncle had protested to including him as his sidekick not because he didn't like Wally, but because he worried for Wally's safety.

This would allow him to approach Barry without triggering any suspicions. He would just have to make sure no one saw him when he approached him. There was always the possibility an onlooker put two and two together and reported him, especially if he did it in their nosy neighborhood.

So he did it when they were done with patrol and changing in an alleyway, it was a secure alleyway that was boarded off for the two to change so they didn't have to run in and out of their homes. Every month or so they'd change location to ward off any stalkers.

As his uncle was pulling his shirt on, and that's when Wally made his move. The knife that was in his hand went through his uncle's neck, killing him almost instantly. Wally chose such a crass manor because he knew that he couldn't outrun or outmaneuver his uncle. A false sense of security was the only way he could take out his uncle, and it worked.

Now this, this was the dissection he had been waiting for. Barry was a police scientist, not quite a coroner, but the concept was close enough. Barry was the one who would help him with his anatomy and science work, he would take Wally to work on Wally's off days and let him help out. As much as Wally was doing this for himself, he did hope to also make his uncle proud.

With a firm grip on his scalpel Wally began with the basic Y-incision like always. His hand had grown more confident as he gained his experience, and yes he was nervous now that he was working on his uncle, but he didn't let that make his hand shake at all. It felt like he had to make his uncle proud since it was his body, and he was completely focused on the task.

Wally kept detailed notes, more so than any other dissection he had done. This had to be perfect. When he had the body all prepped he began taking out the many organs and taking various samples from them. He took eye, marrow, and samples from the legs, heart, and arms and stored the vials in his pockets. No way he was going to risk losing those samples.

When he was done he calmly cleaned up and stitched the body up as best he could, making a note to learn better stitching when he got a chance. He hid the body as best he could and left quickly after making sure no one was watching.

The League put in a search after Iris told them Barry hadn't come back home. Wally had a cover story that he was out with friends, a story he did actually fulfill, so he was questioned but quickly dismissed when it was apparent he didn't know anything. They found the body nearly a week afterwards, it was too late to do any conclusive forensics work on it considering the poor condition the body was found in.

The results were finished in the lab of his college and were very, very interesting. Barry's leg muscles were barely more muscular then a long distance runner. But he had an interesting mix of chemicals in his blood that improved muscle performance, least Wally assumed. He hadn't had the chance to see how the chemical reacted to human muscle. Maybe he could test it on rats. He'd have to figure out how to synthesize it. Oh, this was too good to be true!

Though this was something he'd have to shelve his notes until further notice. He wished he could conduct a study with his findings, but the League was in a tizzy and Wally experimenting with a new chemical would cause him to be monitored and the origin of the chemical questioned. No he needed to keep this in his pocket until he could test it to its full potential.

As he cataloged and organized his notes he couldn't help but think that his uncle would be proud. Wally didn't do all of this for his uncle's approval, but it was nice to know that Barry would be proud of all he'd accomplished.

~Fin


End file.
